Darkest India eBook

But let me enumerate a few of the classes among whom
the Indian “Out-of-works” are to be found.
I do not mean of course to imply that the entire castes,
or tribes, or professions, referred to, constitute
them. Far from it. A large proportion are
comparatively well off, and though entangled almost
universally in debt, are included among the 210 millions
with whom we are not now concerned. None the less
it will be admitted, I believe, that it is from these
that the ranks of destitution are chiefly recruited.
I call attention to this fact, because it helps in
a large measure to remove the religious difficulty
which might at first sight appear likely to stand
in the way of our being commissioned by the Indian
public to undertake these much-needed reforms.
They are almost without exception of either no caste,
or of such low caste, that religiously speaking they
may justly be regarded as “no man’s land.”
The higher castes and the respectable classes are
mostly able to look after themselves, and will not
therefore come within the scope of our scheme.

And yet on the threshold of our inquiry we are confronted
with an important and increasing class, of “out-of-works”
who are being turned out of our educational establishments,
unfitted for a life of hard labour, trained for desk
service, but without any prospect of suitable employment
in the case of a great and continually increasing majority.
I do not see how it will be possible for us to exclude
or ignore this class in our regimentation of the unemployed.
Certainly our sympathies go out very greatly after
them. But beyond registering them in our labour
bureau, and acting as go-betweens in finding employment
for a small fraction of them, I do not see what more
can be done. However, the majority of them have
well-to-do relations and friends to whom they can
turn, and except in cases of absolute destitution will
not fall within the scope of the present effort.

Passing over these we come to the poorest classes
of peasant proprietors who, having mortgaged their
tiny allotments to the hilt, have finally been sold
up by the money-lender. Add to these again the
more respectable sections of day-laborers. Then
there are the destitute among the weavers, tanners,
sweepers and other portions of what constitute the
low-caste community. Out of these take now the
case of the weaver caste, with whom we happen to be
particularly familiar, as our work in Gujarat is largely
carried on among them. Since the introduction
of machinery, their lot has come to be particularly
pitiable. In one district it is reckoned that
there are 400,000 of them. Previous to the mills
being started, they could get a comfortable competence,
but year by year the margin of profit has been narrowed
down, till at length absolute starvation is beginning
to stare them in the face, and that within measurable
distance.

To the above we may add again the various gipsy tribes,
who have no settled homes or regular means of livelihood.
Finally, there are the non-religious mendicants, the
religious ones being considered as not coming within
the scope of our present effort, being provided for
in charitable institutions of their own.